COVER FEATURE
by B.C. Kowalski
Rental reality As more and more people look for apartment living, demand remains high around Wausau, especially for urban units like the soon-to-open Apartments at Riverlife. Demand for single family housing remains strong in the Wausau area. Demand for apartments is just as high, if not higher. In fact, despite all the new apartments and condos being built, there’s still a severe shortfall in Wausau, according to developers, landlords and officials interviewed by City Pages. How severe? According to Chris Schock, the city’s Community Development Director, the city needs another 800 units to keep up with demand in the city, even though around 400 have been built in the past three years. Studies the city commissioned, such as the Towers Study last year, also show the city lags in available rental units compared to peer cities. That’s especially true of housing diversity—meaning a variety of different types of rental housing— something that’s been a rallying cry from city officials in the past four years. Schock points out recent new projects such as Urban West, the townhouses on Third Street, and the new apartments in the former Sav-O supply building as examples of that type of building. “Nationally, multi-family demand had been at record highs, driven by the two symbiotic demographic trends,” Schock says. It’s a two-punch trend happening at the same time: young professionals are starting families and buying homes later in life, and empty-nesters downsizing to urban options. Both sets are seeking smaller living space with the convenience of walkable amenities, Schock says.
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CiTY PAGES
April 30–May 7, 2020
Mitch Viegut, one of three developers of the Apartments at Riverlife, leads a walkthrough of the project, slated to open in July. Viegut, who owns a variety of other properties, says rental demand overall has been strong since the 2008 financial crisis. But interest in downtown living is the strongest.
